On 11 August 2026 YouTube announced changes to its Partner Programme (YPP). The official blog calls it the first major overhaul since 2018.
The changes take effect on 1 February 2027.
YouTube official blog — Partner Programme updates (11 August 2026)Three things change
1. The entry bar for new applicants doubles
| Now (until 31 Jan 2027) | New applicants from 1 Feb 2027 | |
|---|---|---|
| Watch hours | 4,000 in 12 months | 8,000 in 365 days |
| Or Shorts views | 10M in 90 days | 20M in 90 days |
| Subscribers | 1,000 | 1,000 |
Creators already in YPP are not affected. The blog states this explicitly. The separate, lower bar for fan funding and shopping features stays where it is.
2. Shorts revenue sharing gains a standing condition
This is the more consequential half. From 1 February 2027, Shorts ad and subscription revenue sharing applies only to creators with at least 10 million valid Shorts views in the trailing 90 days.
Fall below it and you keep YPP membership and keep monetising long-form. Reach 10 million again and Shorts revenue sharing resumes automatically.
Ten million views per 90 days is roughly 110,000 views a day, sustained. One video breaking out does not get you there; staying there does.
3. The revenue pool percentages are now public
How a Premium subscription reaches a creator:
Subscription fee
Premium / Premium Lite
Revenue pool
30% / 60% of net subscription revenue
Allocation
By member watch time and views
Your share
Long-form 55% · Shorts 45%
Flow: Subscription fee, then Revenue pool, then Allocation, then Your share
Shorts carry a lower share than long-form: 45% against 55%.
What you can act on
✓ Correct
- Joining before 31 Jan 2027 exempts you from the raised entry bar
- Posting only Shorts never fills the 4,000-hour route — only the view route stays open
- Shorts revenue sharing keeps demanding 10M views per 90 days no matter when you joined
✕ Not correct
- Joining early also exempts you from the Shorts revenue condition — separate rule
- Existing members face the higher bar too — the blog says they do not
- The fan-funding bar rises as well — it stays unchanged
⚠️ Watch time generated in the Shorts feed does not count toward the 4,000-hour threshold. That is not new in this announcement; it is existing policy, stated in YouTube's own help pages. It is why Shorts-only channels watch their hours stay flat.
YouTube Partner Programme overview and eligibility (checked 16 August 2026)What is still unknown
YouTube previewed new incentive programmes for channels below the 10-million line — shopping bonuses, brand-deal incentives, and boosts tied to trends and growth. Details are described as coming "soon"; neither the conditions nor the amounts have been published. We will check and update this post as they appear.
And no per-view rate is published anywhere, including in this announcement. If you see a figure quoted as "$X per 1,000 Shorts views", it did not come from YouTube.
Why publish this now
This information has a shelf life. Once 1 February 2027 passes, "join before the deadline" stops being useful advice. Until then, most Shorts monetisation guides in search results were written before the announcement existed.
We checked two sources — the official blog and the official help centre — on 16 August 2026. Both are linked above. Open them yourself; they are the primary record.